Improved prices and final price concessions for May 2024
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Following representations made by Community Pharmacy England on behalf of community pharmacy owners, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has today redetermined the concession prices for four products and confirmed three further price concessions for May 2024.
This announcement comes in the following month and follows the decision by DHSC to impose changes to concessions pricing from April 2024 to try to manage purchase margins. DHSC has applied its new margin reduction formula as a final step, delaying the announcement through the addition of another layer of complexity to the concessions process.
Community Pharmacy England has strongly opposed this, and is continuing to warn that putting further pressure on pharmacies to dispense at a loss will have very serious consequences for the sector, patients and the wider primary care system.
Redetermined prices:
| Drug | Pack size | Price concession |
| Ezetimibe 10mg tablets | 28 | £7.02 (previously £6.17) |
| Quetiapine 100mg tablets | 60 | £3.25 (previously £2.27) |
| Quetiapine 150mg tablets | 60 | £5.20 (previously £3.10) |
| Quetiapine 200mg tablets | 60 | £5.49 (previously £5.20) |
Further price concessions granted:
| Drug | Pack size | Price concession |
| Nicorandil 10mg tablets | 60 | £5.05 |
| Nicorandil 20mg tablets | 60 | £9.30 |
| Pregabalin 75mg capsules | 56 | £1.54 |
For the full list of price concessions granted for May 2024 please visit our price concession hub page here
The new and/or improved prices will apply to prescriptions submitted for payment for the dispensing month of May 2024.
Please note: These prices do not apply to June 2024 prescriptions as we are still working with DHSC to confirm price concessions for June. The first update for this month will be published as soon as we receive a response from the Department.
Notes
There are no prices that rolled over from the previous month.
No additional endorsements are required for price concessions. A price concession only applies for the month it is granted; any prices agreed for concessions requested late in the month will roll over into the following month.
Next Steps
Pharmacies should continue to report any problems obtaining a Part VIII product at or below the stated Drug Tariff price, using the online feedback form on our website. Please include full details of the supplier and price paid for any products sourced above the Drug Tariff price. We will investigate the extent of the problem and, if appropriate, submit further price concession applications to DHSC. Any prices granted by DHSC, will only be agreed by Community Pharmacy England if they are supported by the reports received by our team.
Please subscribe to our mailing list to receive email updates of any price concessions.
Background to the changes
DHSC announced in the April 2024 Drug Tariff its decision to manage retained buying margin by limiting concessionary prices. From April to June 2024, DHSC will be seeking to recover c£5.4m per month from the community pharmacy sector by squeezing price concessions.
This experiment, which was imposed, is replacing the usual process of making margin adjustments to Category M reimbursement prices for this quarter. Community Pharmacy England remains firmly opposed to this approach, or any recovery of margin, given the very serious financial fragility of community pharmacies. We have serious concerns about the ongoing impact on pharmacy businesses and their patients.
Further information on price concessions and FAQs about the process involved can be found on our website (cpe.org.uk/priceconcessions). To hear more on how the current price concessions system operates, pharmacy teams can watch a recording of our webinar here.
